Brad Rutkowski's Blog

Interacting with Data Collector Sets via Powershell

Background: In an earlier post I talked about some new features for Windows 2008 and Vista.  One of those new features that is often overlooked are the data collector sets (DCS).  One particular role that leverages data collector sets is active Read More...

Posted Wednesday, February 18, 2009 9:30 PM by Brad Rutkowski | 0 Comments

Hey Admins! Taking some of the pain out of analyzing perfmon captures.

Performance Analysis of Logs (PAL) tool Project Description: Ever have a performance problem, but don't know what performance counters to collect or how to analyze them? The PAL (Performance Analysis of Logs) tool is a new and powerful tool that reads Read More...

Posted Wednesday, February 13, 2008 11:03 PM by Brad Rutkowski | 1 Comments

Some docs to help get you ready for Windows 2008.

Yes you are going to want Windows 2008 in your shop.  We've been running 2k8 for over two year sin production and I'm very proud of the product we're shipping shortly.  Some of you will want to start thinking about what's new in the OS, what Read More...

Posted Monday, February 11, 2008 10:23 PM by Brad Rutkowski | 0 Comments

How long did it take that command to run?

When troubleshooting latency issues I've found it helpful to have firm numbers of how long it took for a command to run? For instance we were looking at an issue where net viewing a server took a long time, but we didn't have firm number of how long it Read More...

Posted Wednesday, January 16, 2008 12:08 AM by Brad Rutkowski | 0 Comments

Using TypePerf to get performance data on the command prompt.

I was tracking a high CPU issue this week and needed to know when one of my servers was pegged so I could investigate. I could of used perfmon I guess but I really like to do everything I can from the command prompt. I always like it when there is a tool Read More...

Posted Saturday, September 22, 2007 9:29 PM by Brad Rutkowski | 5 Comments

Hey Admins! Windows System State Analyzer (Beta)

Windows System state analyzer tool Helps create snapshots of the computer—some of which include fixed drives, services, drivers and the registry. Users can create two snapshots at different points in time and compare them to view differences. A detailed Read More...

Posted Saturday, August 25, 2007 4:56 AM by Brad Rutkowski | 7 Comments

Great tool for Windows 2003: Server Performance Advisor (SPA)

First off you can download SPA 2.0 here . I'm going to explain how to quickly use SPA, and then what type of data is returned in this post. What is SPA? So what is SPA and how can you use it? Well the official overview is: Microsoft ® Windows Server ™ Read More...

Posted Tuesday, June 26, 2007 4:47 PM by Brad Rutkowski | 22 Comments

How to easily calculate your system availability (uptime).

We all have managers and ALL managers love that little word called metrics, and ALL managers like to know that their service has 99.99% uptime. So how can you easily get this information off a Windows server? Well there is a simple tool out there called Read More...

Posted Tuesday, April 24, 2007 6:39 PM by Brad Rutkowski | 1 Comments